THE HEART OF ADDICTION
CHAPTER 7
Drunkenness
Noah is best known for building the ark God used to save him and his family from drowning in the historical event of The Flood. In Genesis 9, however, you discover that Noah was not a perfect man when he sinned by drinking strong wine to excess and became intoxicated. What made it even worse was that Noah was a preacher and a man committed to his God. In fact, the Bible refers to him as “righteous” and “blameless.”66 Noah walked with God and God saved Noah and his family from what would have been a certain death in The Flood.67 After saving his life here on earth, God saved his eternal life by establishing a covenant with Noah and his descendants. Despite this, Noah got drunk with wine and sinned against his Lord. Therefore, it is certainly possible for Christians to sin in the area of substance abuse even after experiencing great blessings from the Lord! A Familiar Problem to God Perhaps you find yourself in one of these categories: an admitted, full blown drunkard, an addict, or maybe an occasional alcohol and drug user who partakes to excess. Well, God is so merciful to drunks and abusers of addictive substances that He addresses this problem very near the beginning of the Bible—in the ninth chapter of the book of Genesis! Think about it in this way: since God knows how dangerous the problem of addiction is and how devastating the consequences, He chooses to lovingly introduce you to the problem in the first book of the Bible. The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings and God wastes no time in dealing with the significant problem of substance abuse and physical addiction. God even demonstrates how drunkenness has negative consequences for the family members of the drunkard! Genesis 9:20-27 states: Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. Prior to this passage, the Bible speaks of Noah as righteous. Genesis 6:9 states: “…Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” Noah’s righteousness means he was saved by grace through faith in the Messiah to come68 and does not mean that God chose to use Noah because he was a perfect man. God made Noah righteous just as He makes all Christians righteous. We still have a sin nature affecting our thoughts, words, and actions, even though we are born again and filled continually by the Holy Spirit. In other words, the habits of our old nature (the flesh) in our sinful thinking and acting are not completely eradicated when we become a Christian. Instead, the Holy Spirit is given to dwell in us so we are empowered to overcome sin by being changed in our thoughts, words, and actions. In John 14:15-17, Jesus encouraged His disciples by saying, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” If you truly love Jesus more than yourself, there will be a change of heart after studying the Scriptures that will result in a change of behavior. One changed behavior immediately evident is more obedience to God’s commands because of the power of the Holy Spirit working through you. A second changed behavior is evidenced when a Christian sins. The Holy Spirit brings conviction (guilt) for the Christian who realizes that this is sin against a Holy God and wants to confess it to God and ask for forgiveness. It is when your heart is broken in repentance over your sin that God draws near to you (Psalm 34:18). Noah was a believer. He had a close relationship with God, and he walked with God, but Noah was not perfect. We are shown in the passage above that on at least one occasion, he gave in to the sin of drunkenness. Likewise, if you drink to excess or abuse prescription medications occasionally or even just once, you have sinned and you need to repent. It is a matter of your heart. “The heart of your problem is a problem with your heart.”69 Examine your heart. What is motivating you when you drink to excess? Is it a desire for excessive pleasure, avoidance of pain, loneliness, despair, depression, guilt, people-pleasing, escape, pride, selfishness, or other ungodly desires? Often these momentary reasons for drinking reveal a more serious problem of the heart that needs to be addressed quickly before it becomes even more problematic. Comparative Morality Someone who is an occasional, excessive substance abuser is just as guilty of committing sin as an addict or a drunkard. Often, the alcohol or drug abuser deceives himself by thinking he is really not as bad as an addict or drunkard. Comparative morality, which thinks “there’s always a worse sin than mine,” is exemplified by the following examples of thought: •“I’m sure glad my problem isn’t as bad as theirs.” This is often the mentality at “self-help” group meetings. “At least I’m not as bad as that guy over there! I never drank that much.” •The person taking 15 hydrocodone pills a day says, “I have a legal prescription for my pills. I have legitimate pain. I even have a diagnosis. I’m not like those people who are buying and selling their drugs on the street and using illegal substances. My drugs are legal.” •“Once I get to the point of selling my body or stealing so I can get drugs, then I will know I’ve got a problem. At least I’m not that bad off…yet.” •The nicotine addict says, “I just smoke cigarettes. At least I don’t drink alcohol.” •The marijuana addict says, “At least I don’t go out and drive under the influence of alcohol. I smoke at home and don’t hurt anybody but myself.” •The cocaine addict says, “I’m snorting my drug. At least I don’t use the needle like a heroin addict.” •The Friday night drunk says, “At least I only get drunk once a week. Some people are drunk every night of the week.” •The heroin addict says, “I’m only hurting myself. I don’t get in the car to drive when I use drugs. At least, I don’t rob people or shoot people like a methamphetamine addict.” •The self-help industry in the United States feeds this same mentality: “We don’t call ourselves ‘addicts’ at these meetings because we are not ‘addicts.’ We are ‘alcoholics.’ We abused alcohol not drugs,” they say. Comparative morality is a primary reason for the large variety of “self-help group meetings”. This categorizing of our sin is often prideful. Abusing drugs in any form is a sin called drunkenness in the Bible.70 Alcohol is a drug in liquid form. It doesn’t matter if you inject it, snort it, drink it, pop it, or inhale it; whatever means you use to get the substance into your body excessively is the sin of drunkenness. It is a sin in God’s eyes, and it will destroy you according to Ephesians 5:18. When you minimize your sin, blame-shift, or rationalize your behavior it is easy to continue in your sin by using your substance of choice excessively. By comparing your life to others that you consider “worse,” you are justifying your sinful actions. You can always find another sinner who is “worse” than you, but by minimizing and comparing your morality to others, you will never come to full repentance – to full acknowledgement of the truth of your life. The Bible says, “God may perhaps grant them [you] repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they [you] may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”71 The prerequisite indicated in this verse of Scripture is that God grants you repentance to acknowledge your sin before Him. You can give your sin as many various labels and diagnoses as you wish, but unless you fully acknowledge the truth of your sin, you have not been granted repentance from God. Think of it. You can repent because God can grant it to you. It’s not your own strength. You can receive forgiveness because your behavior is a sin. It’s not a disease that has attacked you. You can change because the Power of God working in you through the Holy Spirit can give you the ability to do it. He works in you to will and do His good pleasure. You must obey, but your success is a result of His power in Christ Jesus, the Hope of Glory. That’s hope for lasting change! God does not want you to compare your behavior to that of other people. God wants you to compare your behavior to His laws, standards, and commands in the Bible. When compared to the Word of God, you realize your occasional, excessive drug and alcohol usage is a sin issue according to Ephesians 5:18: “And do not be drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.” The occasional substance abuser on prescription medications also needs to examine his heart frequently and apply the same biblical principles, laws, standards, and commands in order to change his life. So you ask, “What if I only drink or use prescription medications to excess occasionally?” Even though this question minimizes the severity of the drug usage and abuse, the Bible still considers it to be a sin. You do not have to be a life-dominated drunkard to commit the sin of drunkenness. In fact, if you are one who sometimes gets drunk with alcohol or occasionally uses too much of a prescription drug, you may be in a worse spiritual condition than a drunkard! You may be deceiving yourself. Genesis 19:30-36 records what happened to Lot after he and his family left the burning cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Because Lot was righteous in the sight of God, he and his family were spared. We all know what happened to Lot’s wife when she disobeyed and looked back to see the cities, so that only Lot and his two daughters remained alive. Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose. The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. Here is another example of a man considered to be righteous before God who suffered great sin and shame at the hand of his daughters because of the wine he drank. Lot and Noah are just two biblical examples of men who were not life-dominated drunkards, yet the Bible records one sinful instance for each man when he became drunk with wine. As a result, both men experienced terrible consequences from their one time sinful choice. Apart from the temporary, earthly consequences of the sin of drunkenness, there is the eternal consequence for the unbeliever of unconfessed, unrepentant sin—eternal separation from God, in an eternal, physical (bodily) punishment of fire. You must take responsibility for your sin – no matter how big or how small it may seem in your eyes. This is a big deal! Jesus gave His life for your sin. It does matter. Abusing substances and alcohol for your pleasure or for your escape is a sin. But the good news is that Christ died for sinners, and you can be forgiven. Romans 5:8-11 states: …but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. I urge you to confess any and all of your sins of drunkenness, idolatry, lying, selfishness, or addiction to God now. The hopeful message of the Bible in I John 1:9-10 states: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” Know this: if you are a Christian struggling with an addiction, occasional substance abuse, or drunkenness, you will always be God’s son or daughter; however, your relationship with God is hindered by your chemical use. Imagine that you moved to Africa and your father lives in Kansas. You are still your father’s child but your relationship with him would be severely limited in terms of the closeness and opportunities to communicate. Drug and alcohol use make you feel even more distant from those who love you most: God the Father and your loved ones.72 Drunkenness is the Name: Your Heart is to Blame In the Bible, God does not separate those who get drunk with wine and those who get intoxicated with drugs. Substance abusers are not viewed differently than physically addicted Christians. You may be thinking, “I’m addicted to pain pills or marijuana or cocaine but the Bible does not say anything about any of those drugs specifically. So does God say anything about my specific problem?” The answer is “yes.” In reality, alcohol is a drug just like marijuana, cocaine, opiates, benzodiazepine, methamphetamine, nicotine, and even caffeine. God in His Word describes your drug problem (or drinking to excess) as “drunkenness,” whether it is alcohol or any other drug, legal or illegal, that you are using to get high or low. Drunkenness is the name of your condition, and it is really a condition of your heart. You may ask, “Am I really sinning if I just feel a little out of control?” If you try to split hairs about whether you are feeling the effects of a “buzz” from the intoxicant or that you are drunk and out of control, then you are missing the point and allowing pride to get in the way of obeying God. Your attempts to do this are minimizing your heart’s motives in the matter. In reality this is an effort to justify your using behaviors. Is it a sin to drink alcohol? No. Alcohol, by itself, is the amount of tiny, fermented microbes in the liquid that produces the intoxicating results. Does God want you to count the number of microscopic fermented molecules that are in your drink? No, because the bigger question here is “what is the motivating desire in your heart when you want to drink or use the intoxicant?” This question applies to the use and misuse of prescription drugs as well as alcohol and illicit drugs. Should I take prescription medications? Yes, if you have a medical need for pain medications, then submit yourself to the advice and care of your physician. God has a good purpose for drugs and alcohol: pain relief. Take your prescription as directed by the instructions on the bottle for physical pain. You could also ask a friend or loved one to keep the medication from you if you think you will be tempted to abuse it. If substance abuse is your area of struggle, you must look into your heart for the real reason for your abuse of prescription medications. Are you taking the drug to escape from emotional pain such as depression, sadness, bitterness, anger, and hurt? Prescription medications have a godly purpose when used as God intended, but we are considering here the motives of the heart for taking the medication and the resulting failure to be responsible. Here is a simple tool to use the next time you desire to do something sinful but struggle as to whether you really should do it or not. Before you commit the action, bow down on your knees, close your eyes, and pray to God saying these words: “Lord, I am planning to do ____________ right now to your glory. I am going to do this unto You, Father God, because I know it will please you.” If what you are about to do will not fit properly in the blank line above because that action cannot be done to glorify God, then you must not commit the action. Do something in place of that action that does glorify God! It is really that simple. For example, if you are going to drink a couple of beers, then do this technique with “drink these beers” in the blank line above. Can you do that behavior to God’s glory? Can you put “drink a six pack of beer,” “bottle of wine,” or even “one shot of tequila” in that blank line and make that statement to God’s glory? Speak that sentence out loud using one of the above examples and hear how ridiculous it sounds. Do not concern yourself with a comparison of anyone else who does that same behavior. You must evaluate whether or not you should commit the action. Can you do it unto the Lord? If not, then don’t do it. Do it only when you know it will please God. When your actions start to please God, it is called obedience and it leads to blessings. Turning away from sin and becoming obedient to Christ leads to spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional blessings according to I Peter 3:10-13: “For ‘Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.’ Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?” The truth is that you can begin obeying God today and the blessings of obedience will begin immediately. Honor God right now with your actions of obedience.
Prayer of Heart Change and Application:
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for revealing the truth that Christians can become physically addicted and enslaved to various substances. I repent and ask you to forgive me for allowing myself to become enslaved by my sinful choices. Thank you that you forgive my sins based upon the work of Jesus. When I confess my sins, you are faithful and just and will forgive my sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Thank you for the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, who is with me and is in me. Strengthen me, be my help, cause me to stand on your truth. Uphold me, my Loving Father. Amen.
Noah is best known for building the ark God used to save him and his family from drowning in the historical event of The Flood. In Genesis 9, however, you discover that Noah was not a perfect man when he sinned by drinking strong wine to excess and became intoxicated. What made it even worse was that Noah was a preacher and a man committed to his God. In fact, the Bible refers to him as “righteous” and “blameless.”66 Noah walked with God and God saved Noah and his family from what would have been a certain death in The Flood.67 After saving his life here on earth, God saved his eternal life by establishing a covenant with Noah and his descendants. Despite this, Noah got drunk with wine and sinned against his Lord. Therefore, it is certainly possible for Christians to sin in the area of substance abuse even after experiencing great blessings from the Lord! A Familiar Problem to God Perhaps you find yourself in one of these categories: an admitted, full blown drunkard, an addict, or maybe an occasional alcohol and drug user who partakes to excess. Well, God is so merciful to drunks and abusers of addictive substances that He addresses this problem very near the beginning of the Bible—in the ninth chapter of the book of Genesis! Think about it in this way: since God knows how dangerous the problem of addiction is and how devastating the consequences, He chooses to lovingly introduce you to the problem in the first book of the Bible. The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings and God wastes no time in dealing with the significant problem of substance abuse and physical addiction. God even demonstrates how drunkenness has negative consequences for the family members of the drunkard! Genesis 9:20-27 states: Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. Prior to this passage, the Bible speaks of Noah as righteous. Genesis 6:9 states: “…Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” Noah’s righteousness means he was saved by grace through faith in the Messiah to come68 and does not mean that God chose to use Noah because he was a perfect man. God made Noah righteous just as He makes all Christians righteous. We still have a sin nature affecting our thoughts, words, and actions, even though we are born again and filled continually by the Holy Spirit. In other words, the habits of our old nature (the flesh) in our sinful thinking and acting are not completely eradicated when we become a Christian. Instead, the Holy Spirit is given to dwell in us so we are empowered to overcome sin by being changed in our thoughts, words, and actions. In John 14:15-17, Jesus encouraged His disciples by saying, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” If you truly love Jesus more than yourself, there will be a change of heart after studying the Scriptures that will result in a change of behavior. One changed behavior immediately evident is more obedience to God’s commands because of the power of the Holy Spirit working through you. A second changed behavior is evidenced when a Christian sins. The Holy Spirit brings conviction (guilt) for the Christian who realizes that this is sin against a Holy God and wants to confess it to God and ask for forgiveness. It is when your heart is broken in repentance over your sin that God draws near to you (Psalm 34:18). Noah was a believer. He had a close relationship with God, and he walked with God, but Noah was not perfect. We are shown in the passage above that on at least one occasion, he gave in to the sin of drunkenness. Likewise, if you drink to excess or abuse prescription medications occasionally or even just once, you have sinned and you need to repent. It is a matter of your heart. “The heart of your problem is a problem with your heart.”69 Examine your heart. What is motivating you when you drink to excess? Is it a desire for excessive pleasure, avoidance of pain, loneliness, despair, depression, guilt, people-pleasing, escape, pride, selfishness, or other ungodly desires? Often these momentary reasons for drinking reveal a more serious problem of the heart that needs to be addressed quickly before it becomes even more problematic. Comparative Morality Someone who is an occasional, excessive substance abuser is just as guilty of committing sin as an addict or a drunkard. Often, the alcohol or drug abuser deceives himself by thinking he is really not as bad as an addict or drunkard. Comparative morality, which thinks “there’s always a worse sin than mine,” is exemplified by the following examples of thought: •“I’m sure glad my problem isn’t as bad as theirs.” This is often the mentality at “self-help” group meetings. “At least I’m not as bad as that guy over there! I never drank that much.” •The person taking 15 hydrocodone pills a day says, “I have a legal prescription for my pills. I have legitimate pain. I even have a diagnosis. I’m not like those people who are buying and selling their drugs on the street and using illegal substances. My drugs are legal.” •“Once I get to the point of selling my body or stealing so I can get drugs, then I will know I’ve got a problem. At least I’m not that bad off…yet.” •The nicotine addict says, “I just smoke cigarettes. At least I don’t drink alcohol.” •The marijuana addict says, “At least I don’t go out and drive under the influence of alcohol. I smoke at home and don’t hurt anybody but myself.” •The cocaine addict says, “I’m snorting my drug. At least I don’t use the needle like a heroin addict.” •The Friday night drunk says, “At least I only get drunk once a week. Some people are drunk every night of the week.” •The heroin addict says, “I’m only hurting myself. I don’t get in the car to drive when I use drugs. At least, I don’t rob people or shoot people like a methamphetamine addict.” •The self-help industry in the United States feeds this same mentality: “We don’t call ourselves ‘addicts’ at these meetings because we are not ‘addicts.’ We are ‘alcoholics.’ We abused alcohol not drugs,” they say. Comparative morality is a primary reason for the large variety of “self-help group meetings”. This categorizing of our sin is often prideful. Abusing drugs in any form is a sin called drunkenness in the Bible.70 Alcohol is a drug in liquid form. It doesn’t matter if you inject it, snort it, drink it, pop it, or inhale it; whatever means you use to get the substance into your body excessively is the sin of drunkenness. It is a sin in God’s eyes, and it will destroy you according to Ephesians 5:18. When you minimize your sin, blame-shift, or rationalize your behavior it is easy to continue in your sin by using your substance of choice excessively. By comparing your life to others that you consider “worse,” you are justifying your sinful actions. You can always find another sinner who is “worse” than you, but by minimizing and comparing your morality to others, you will never come to full repentance – to full acknowledgement of the truth of your life. The Bible says, “God may perhaps grant them [you] repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they [you] may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”71 The prerequisite indicated in this verse of Scripture is that God grants you repentance to acknowledge your sin before Him. You can give your sin as many various labels and diagnoses as you wish, but unless you fully acknowledge the truth of your sin, you have not been granted repentance from God. Think of it. You can repent because God can grant it to you. It’s not your own strength. You can receive forgiveness because your behavior is a sin. It’s not a disease that has attacked you. You can change because the Power of God working in you through the Holy Spirit can give you the ability to do it. He works in you to will and do His good pleasure. You must obey, but your success is a result of His power in Christ Jesus, the Hope of Glory. That’s hope for lasting change! God does not want you to compare your behavior to that of other people. God wants you to compare your behavior to His laws, standards, and commands in the Bible. When compared to the Word of God, you realize your occasional, excessive drug and alcohol usage is a sin issue according to Ephesians 5:18: “And do not be drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.” The occasional substance abuser on prescription medications also needs to examine his heart frequently and apply the same biblical principles, laws, standards, and commands in order to change his life. So you ask, “What if I only drink or use prescription medications to excess occasionally?” Even though this question minimizes the severity of the drug usage and abuse, the Bible still considers it to be a sin. You do not have to be a life-dominated drunkard to commit the sin of drunkenness. In fact, if you are one who sometimes gets drunk with alcohol or occasionally uses too much of a prescription drug, you may be in a worse spiritual condition than a drunkard! You may be deceiving yourself. Genesis 19:30-36 records what happened to Lot after he and his family left the burning cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Because Lot was righteous in the sight of God, he and his family were spared. We all know what happened to Lot’s wife when she disobeyed and looked back to see the cities, so that only Lot and his two daughters remained alive. Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose. The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. Here is another example of a man considered to be righteous before God who suffered great sin and shame at the hand of his daughters because of the wine he drank. Lot and Noah are just two biblical examples of men who were not life-dominated drunkards, yet the Bible records one sinful instance for each man when he became drunk with wine. As a result, both men experienced terrible consequences from their one time sinful choice. Apart from the temporary, earthly consequences of the sin of drunkenness, there is the eternal consequence for the unbeliever of unconfessed, unrepentant sin—eternal separation from God, in an eternal, physical (bodily) punishment of fire. You must take responsibility for your sin – no matter how big or how small it may seem in your eyes. This is a big deal! Jesus gave His life for your sin. It does matter. Abusing substances and alcohol for your pleasure or for your escape is a sin. But the good news is that Christ died for sinners, and you can be forgiven. Romans 5:8-11 states: …but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. I urge you to confess any and all of your sins of drunkenness, idolatry, lying, selfishness, or addiction to God now. The hopeful message of the Bible in I John 1:9-10 states: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” Know this: if you are a Christian struggling with an addiction, occasional substance abuse, or drunkenness, you will always be God’s son or daughter; however, your relationship with God is hindered by your chemical use. Imagine that you moved to Africa and your father lives in Kansas. You are still your father’s child but your relationship with him would be severely limited in terms of the closeness and opportunities to communicate. Drug and alcohol use make you feel even more distant from those who love you most: God the Father and your loved ones.72 Drunkenness is the Name: Your Heart is to Blame In the Bible, God does not separate those who get drunk with wine and those who get intoxicated with drugs. Substance abusers are not viewed differently than physically addicted Christians. You may be thinking, “I’m addicted to pain pills or marijuana or cocaine but the Bible does not say anything about any of those drugs specifically. So does God say anything about my specific problem?” The answer is “yes.” In reality, alcohol is a drug just like marijuana, cocaine, opiates, benzodiazepine, methamphetamine, nicotine, and even caffeine. God in His Word describes your drug problem (or drinking to excess) as “drunkenness,” whether it is alcohol or any other drug, legal or illegal, that you are using to get high or low. Drunkenness is the name of your condition, and it is really a condition of your heart. You may ask, “Am I really sinning if I just feel a little out of control?” If you try to split hairs about whether you are feeling the effects of a “buzz” from the intoxicant or that you are drunk and out of control, then you are missing the point and allowing pride to get in the way of obeying God. Your attempts to do this are minimizing your heart’s motives in the matter. In reality this is an effort to justify your using behaviors. Is it a sin to drink alcohol? No. Alcohol, by itself, is the amount of tiny, fermented microbes in the liquid that produces the intoxicating results. Does God want you to count the number of microscopic fermented molecules that are in your drink? No, because the bigger question here is “what is the motivating desire in your heart when you want to drink or use the intoxicant?” This question applies to the use and misuse of prescription drugs as well as alcohol and illicit drugs. Should I take prescription medications? Yes, if you have a medical need for pain medications, then submit yourself to the advice and care of your physician. God has a good purpose for drugs and alcohol: pain relief. Take your prescription as directed by the instructions on the bottle for physical pain. You could also ask a friend or loved one to keep the medication from you if you think you will be tempted to abuse it. If substance abuse is your area of struggle, you must look into your heart for the real reason for your abuse of prescription medications. Are you taking the drug to escape from emotional pain such as depression, sadness, bitterness, anger, and hurt? Prescription medications have a godly purpose when used as God intended, but we are considering here the motives of the heart for taking the medication and the resulting failure to be responsible. Here is a simple tool to use the next time you desire to do something sinful but struggle as to whether you really should do it or not. Before you commit the action, bow down on your knees, close your eyes, and pray to God saying these words: “Lord, I am planning to do ____________ right now to your glory. I am going to do this unto You, Father God, because I know it will please you.” If what you are about to do will not fit properly in the blank line above because that action cannot be done to glorify God, then you must not commit the action. Do something in place of that action that does glorify God! It is really that simple. For example, if you are going to drink a couple of beers, then do this technique with “drink these beers” in the blank line above. Can you do that behavior to God’s glory? Can you put “drink a six pack of beer,” “bottle of wine,” or even “one shot of tequila” in that blank line and make that statement to God’s glory? Speak that sentence out loud using one of the above examples and hear how ridiculous it sounds. Do not concern yourself with a comparison of anyone else who does that same behavior. You must evaluate whether or not you should commit the action. Can you do it unto the Lord? If not, then don’t do it. Do it only when you know it will please God. When your actions start to please God, it is called obedience and it leads to blessings. Turning away from sin and becoming obedient to Christ leads to spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional blessings according to I Peter 3:10-13: “For ‘Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.’ Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?” The truth is that you can begin obeying God today and the blessings of obedience will begin immediately. Honor God right now with your actions of obedience.
Prayer of Heart Change and Application:
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for revealing the truth that Christians can become physically addicted and enslaved to various substances. I repent and ask you to forgive me for allowing myself to become enslaved by my sinful choices. Thank you that you forgive my sins based upon the work of Jesus. When I confess my sins, you are faithful and just and will forgive my sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Thank you for the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, who is with me and is in me. Strengthen me, be my help, cause me to stand on your truth. Uphold me, my Loving Father. Amen.